The Mysterious Tunguska Explosion of 1908

One of the largest astroids to hit the earth occurred in Siberia in 1918. Shutterstock.AIGenerator

The world was shocked in 1908 when an incident occurred that has never been explained. Through the years, researchers have come up with theories to explain what exactly happened on that tragic day in central Siberia, as well as to discover its long-lasting effects.

Just after 7 a.m. on June 30, 1908, people in the area of the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in central Siberia, Russia, reported seeing a bright cylindrical object zip through the sky. Witnesses said it suddenly looked like the sky split in two, followed by a flash of light brighter than the sun.

Location of the event in Siberia (modern map). Ras67/CC BY-SA 3.0

Crash of Light

A witness to the event, S. Semenov, said: “At breakfast time I was … approximately 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of the explosion, facing north. I suddenly saw that directly to the north, over Onkoul’s Tunguska Road, the sky split in two and fire appeared high and wide over the forest.” Semenov stated that the light got intense and it felt like his shirt was on fire when loud thunder blasts started going off. The witness was blown off his feet and thrown several feet away.

Others told stories of getting jolted back in their rocking chairs by the force of the blast. Roofs were blown off, some buildings were destroyed, and millions of windows were blown out of structures located several miles away. Thousands of people were injured and hundreds of reindeer were killed but, amazingly, due to the blast’s remote location, only three people died.

However,  for nearly two decades, due to the tense political climate in Russia at the time, nobody was able to go to the site of the blast and research what happened. When scientists did make their way to the site in the 1920s, they noticed no crater or fragments of a comet. They did find an area of over 500,000 acres with millions of trees knocked down.

Scientists in the area recorded both seismic and atmospheric activity on the day of the event. They determined that the blast dealt a force equivalent to 15 megatons of TNT, which is around 185 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that dropped in Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.

After Effects

Studies have shown some long-term effects on plants and other life in the region. Most of the land in the region has been transformed into a nature reserve to allow the area to heal, so scientists continue to study the plants and animals affected by the incident.

Trees were knocked down and burned over hundreds of square kilometers by, possibly, a Tunguska meteoroid impact. This image is cropped from the original, taken in May 1929 during the Leonid Kulik expedition in 1929. PD-US

One observation was that the forest regrew unusually fast after the blast. Some scientists conjectured that trace elements from an asteroid might have stimulated the regrowth. Researchers also noted genetic changes to plants, insects, animals, rocks, and soil in the area.

Scientists around the world have come to the conclusion that the Tunguska event occurred when a giant asteroid fell into the earth’s atmosphere and then disintegrated before it struck the surface. Most experts agree that a similar event could happen in the future, but an asteroid collision of that magnitude only takes place about once every 1,000 years.

By studying the effects of the event, scientists can now be more prepared for a similar event in the future.

What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to [email protected]